Good with the bad, I guess...

It had been raining absolutely unendingly for the morning.  I had taken a break, reading, and some knitting.  Husband had been dozing, with Ding holding him down... Also dozing.

Husband woke, and we were chatting a bit.  I stood up, to go into the other room, while he was talking... And I guess my face showed my shock.  He finished his sentence, then looked at me curiously, "What's wrong?"

"There is an eagle out in the field, eating one of my chickens.."

He stopped... "An eagle?"

"Yeah, an eagle, right there..."

We both looked out the window, to the sight of this ENORMOUS eagle, obviously a big adult bald eagle, calmly tearing apart one of my hens.  Well, there was not much I could do.

We tried to take a picture or two, but my camera was... Not at its best, and between the blasted flash being on, making it a big glare on the window.  And the zoom, just wasn't zoomy enough to get a good picture, we just had to be satisfied watching it for a bit.  Or, unsatisfied, as it were...

Finally the eagle left, and I went out to see what happened.  I am still not sure why, but the hen was plucked nearly clean.  It was one of the young ones, and it looked like someone had set a bomb off in a feather pillow.  I managed to get her picked up and buried, which was fun, in and of itself, since it started raining again.  That made the hole fill with water, which was not great.  I also had to use a feed shovel to dig the hole, because I couldn't find the standard shovel.  But, I did get it taken care of.  The rest of the flock were fine, if rightly terrified.  I noticed Mon Ami was pacing, and looked like he wasn't hurt, but maybe wasn't sure if he should go out and challenge the intruder.  Glad he didn't. 

So, while I had a wonderful close up view, I truly wish it had been of a fly by, not a stop and eat...

Eagle and Dove.

I think I mentioned that Mon Ami was a Dad.  I have two young birds with his coloring, and extra toes. I have named them Eagle and Dove.  Though, the way they act in the mornings, Parrot and Budgie might be more accurate. 

Eagle, like his (?) namesake, is mostly dark feathered from the neck back, with a white head.  Slightly bigger than Dove, he is really not aggressive.  Guess he has a lot of his dad in him.  He is fast, loves to run around, and seems to be the quickest to find almost any food, any where.  (Well, he is a teenager, I guess).  I have been waiting to see if he gets big, since Mom was a large breed hen, but so far, he's not that large. 

Eagle

Actually, neither is Dove.  She has a little color, but it's more the buff of her Mom, with a white head.  She, like her namesake, is shy, and tends to stay under protective tree limbs, or hang out with Eagle, but if there is the least bit of kerfuffle, she is GONE. 

Dove

They are lovely looking right now, which is nice, because a lot of my poor hens, and the two roosters...

Oh, molting is finally over, and it couldn't have come any sooner!  Sad and pathetic.  But, I am sure next year, they will have to take the indignity of being really crappy looking for a while, too. 

Oh, the Parrot and Budgie thing?  In the mornings, when I go out to feed, I have to open the door to the hen house.  There is a large metal screen on the window of the door.  Most mornings, when the two of them realize I am going to open the door, they fly up, grab onto the screen, and cluck at me a few times, before jumping off and gliding over to the 'landing' area nearby.  None of the others, including Mon Ami, have ever done this, and I am not entirely sure why they do.  They seem to be good at it, however!